Day 13 - Guest Room {Net Zero Decluttering Challenge}

Have you ever felt overwhelmed during the month of December with all the stuff that enters your home? The trick I've found helps me is to declutter throughout the month. Will you join me in the Net Zero Decluttering Challenge?

Each day this month I'll share some decluttering tips and ideas so you can end the month with the same number of items in your home (or maybe even less!) than what you started the month with.

Today I'm sharing tips on decluttering your guest room.

Today's Suggested Decluttering Task

A guest room can become a dumping ground (AKA clutter magnet) if you don't have guests staying over regularly. It's that room that you can put things that don't have a home.  Or things that you just need to "hide" temporarily but then you never go back and put them where they belong.

Plus, guest rooms often double as an office, a craft/sewing room, a place for off-season storage, or even a playroom.  Or maybe a combination of several of those.  As a result, they contain a lot of "stuff".

Here are some tips to help you declutter your guest room:

• Toss any garbage and recycling you find
• Let go of items that you haven't used in the past year
• Relocate anything that doesn't belong in the room (make a pile near the door as you go through the room and put everything away at once - otherwise you'll get distracted and end up not finishing your guest room)
• Establish homes for items that need to be stored in the room - contain as many things in baskets or bins as possible so they don't look as cluttered as items out in the open
• Imagine how you'd like to feel when staying away from home (relaxed, peaceful, etc.) and work towards producing that feeling in your guest room (which means as little clutter as possible!)

If you don't have a guest room focus on decluttering any rooms that guests may be in during the holidays (living room, family room, dining room, kitchen, entry area, powder room, etc.).

If your guest room is a multi-purpose room, check out this post for tips to organize it:

31 Days of Organizing Tips: Day 28 Multipurpose Rooms

Decluttering My Guest Room

I don't have a guest room.  And we tend to go out to family and friends' homes during the holidays so we don't entertain very much.  But we are having our families over next weekend to celebrate my birthday so I'll be tidying our main floor this week.  It's not in bad shape though because I decluttered before we decorated last weekend.

My Progress in the #NetZeroClutter challenge

I've been working on decluttering our basement off and on for the last few months.  It's kind of like a guest room... in that we have a futon there that guests could sleep on... but mainly in that it's the place in our home where things get dumped and not put away.  As I was putting things away recently I did a little decluttering.

Here's a costume that didn't get put away after Halloween.  But that's actually a good thing because it's too small for my daughter now anyway so we'll give it to her cousins.

And we pulled out some party decorations before my daughter's birthday but didn't put them away.  We didn't end up using them because the place we had her party did the decorating.  I ended up going through the rest of our party decorations bin with my daughter and we decluttered all the princess decorations.  She still likes princesses but she didn't think she's want them for her next birthday party so we're passing them on to her cousin.  And we have no more 9 year old birthdays in our family so we'll pass the #9 candle on too.

And once in awhile we put some items we're planning to give away down in the basement... temporarily... and then we forget to deal with them for awhile.  Our basement and much of our main floor were full of most of the stuff from our garage the last few months because our garage floor was being replaced... and during that time we lost track of these items that we'd planed to give away in September.

1 bike helmet, 1 pair of elbow pads, 1 pair of knee pads, 1 lunch box, 2 pencil cases, 1 ruler, and 1 nightgown.  The bike stuff is too small for my son, my kids wanted more generic school supplies this fall, and my daughter outgrew the nightgown.  They're at the front door now ready to give to my sister-in-law this week.

So that puts me at -15 items today in the #NetZeroClutter challenge and -251 overall.  I forgot to include a cardboard hat that entered our house last weekend when my son went to a hockey game, so I've counted it now.  Only 4 items in this month so far... I'm very happy about that!

What's Next For You?

Take some time today to declutter your guest room.  Or anything you'd like to declutter!  Take some pictures and share your progress on social media using the hashtag #NetZeroClutter.  Let me know how you're doing in the challenge so I can cheer you on!

Sign up to receive my blog posts by email so you get each day's post in your email inbox every morning.  You can unsubscribe after the challenge is over if you don't want to continue receiving my blog posts by email.

I'd also love for you to join our 365 Items in 365 Days Facebook group as you do this challenge!  You'll be able to share with others what you're decluttering and feel encouraged and inspired by everyone else who is also decluttering!

If you'd like more decluttering ideas, you can check out my Decluttering/Purging Tips & Ideas board on Pinterest.

So that's today's post in the Net Zero Decluttering Challenge!  I'm enjoying doing this challenge and I'm excited to have you join me.  I love hearing all the stories of how much more you're enjoying your holidays because you're not overwhelmed by all the stuff in your home!

How many items did you declutter from your guest room?  How can you keep it from becoming a dumping ground in the future?


Happy organizing decluttering!



I link up at these great parties - Check them out!

Here are all the posts in this challenge in case you missed any or want to share some with your friends or family!